1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cholesterol oxide adsorbing agent, a process for its production, a method for adsorbing cholesterol oxide and a process for producing foods containing cholesterol or cholesterol oxide.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cholesterol oxide has an effect on body functions similar to fatty acid peroxides and has been implicated as a trigger causing various diseases, as well as aging. Cholesterol oxide, which has such a harmful effect on the body, is produced in significant amounts during processing of animal product foods, and it has been reported that about 30% is absorbed in the small intestine, resulting in disturbance to the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism.
In the light of this background, and with the increasing ingestion of processed animal product foods, research has continued in the hope of achieving a rapid understanding of the mechanism involved, in order to establish a means for reducing absorption of cholesterol oxide into the body and suppressing its physiological effects; it is highly important for public health to elucidate the presence of a food component with such a physiological function.
Up to the present time there have been reported cholesterol oxide adsorbing agents composed mainly of acidic polysaccharides as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-30667 and No.8-253502, as food components which inhibit absorption of cholesterol oxide in foods or control its physiological action.
However, the process described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-30667 uses polysaccharides produced only from special yeast mutants, and is therefore associated with problems of dubious safety and poor yield. In addition, the process described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-253502 involves synthesis of sulfated polysaccharides by a chemical method, and is therefore associated with problems of safety including the presence of residual unreacted components.
Thus, no fully satisfactory solution has yet been found for food materials which are safe and economical to use as adsorbing agents for cholesterol oxide which so adversely affects the body, or for a process for their production.